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::Vancouver ScotiaBank Half Marathon::

In the world in Canadian running, this event was pretty star studded with 2 out of the 3 Canadaian Olympic marathon runners entered. Throw in a Sun Run winner and a couple other speeders and this makes for a very fast field. I decided to run about 3 weeks before the event, I thought it would be a good chance to sharpen up my running speed and see what tired legs could do. I hadn’t raced this event since I caught the racing bug back in 2006 on this course.

Last years shot…since I was running this year -I have no images!

A very fast course that starts you off in UBC and finishes at one of my favorite urban training grounds in Stangley Park at Second Beach entrance. With perfect running weather, I was looking forward to running. I came into this race hoping to go under my 1:20 mark but was fairly doubtful after doing 150km on my bike the day before. Not knowning how my legs would respond I was just going to go out and tackle the course and hope to hold on.

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::Another one from last year::

We got in around 7:00am, parked and then ran around looking for a washroom. Once we uncovered a secret door out of the Starbucks we found our washroom and got to the start for 7:30. A few little pushes and shoves to the near front, we were ready for the start.

Having the start at UBC makes things pretty straight forward and easy. The roads are nice and wide for large numbers of runners as well as having all the parking and access for a smooth race. I was able to get around most of the slower people in the first mile and then settled in at about 10 minutes into the race. By about km 6 I was holding up ok but wasn’t really having the speed I was hoping for. Once out of the UBC area and climbed out of the jericho area, I knew how much I needed to finish strong. I had one gel at 30min and at about 50 minutes, I could tell my fuel was getting low. I had one more left and was going to use it as the sercet weapon. 50mg latte flavored powerbar gel was burning a hole in my pocket with the plan to use it to float me home. It did just that. I had 2-3 other runners that I couldn’t shake but I had enough energy to smash off 3 solid final kms to finish up 30th.

It was a pretty hard grid keeping my pace but overall I felt it was fairly solid. I was using this race as a indicatior of what I am capable with tired legs. I actually surprised myself that I was that close to 1:20 and look forward to really testing myself at Lake Stevens 70.3 in the middle of July.

Overall, this race has to be one, if not the premiere half marathon in BC. Solid signage, wide roads, loads of water stations, gels if you don’t have your own fuel, and a bus ride back to your car when your done. One of my favorite things about this race is the scenery through Jercho, which is very similar to the Vancouver Half Ironman in a weeks time.